James Cameron on his 'Hiroshima' movie -- due 'sometime before the next nuclear war'

Image Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty ImagesThe Avatar sequel is still several years away — “We’re in the early days of technical development,” James Cameron told EW during an interview last week in Santa Monica, where he was plugging the Aug. 27 3-D Avatar re-release (check out his Q&A in this week’s issue). But that’s not the only film on the director’s to-do list. Cameron is also quietly working on a serious, history-based movie that sounds like it could be his own Schindler’s List. It’s called Last Train from Hiroshima, and it’s about a Japanese man during World War II who miraculously survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, got on a train to Nagasaki, and then survived the nuclear explosion in that city, as well.

“I met Yamaguchi, the survivor, just days before he died [earlier this year],” Cameron says. “He was in the hospital. He was sort of turning over the baton of his story to us, so I have to do it. I can’t turn away from that.”

Still, Cameron has a lot of questions to answer before he begins rolling cameras. “The issue is tonal,” he says. “Yeah, sure, I could forensically show you what it was like to be at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But you probably wouldn’t want to stay around for the back half of the movie. And then there’s the question of whether I do it in 3D. I’ve made blanket statement that all my movies are going to be in 3D from now on, but I couldn’t do this in 3D. It’d be too sensationalistic.” How long before he solves these problems and makes the movie? Is it possible it could be in theaters before Avatar’s sequel? Cameron isn’t sure. “I’d like to do it sometime before the next nuclear war,” is all he’ll commit to.

What do you think PopWatchers? What would you rather see Cameron make first, an Avatar sequel or a serious drama about nuclear war?

For more from James Cameron, read our Q&A with the Oscar-winning director in the issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Aug. 13.